{"id":583,"date":"2019-07-26T21:42:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T01:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=583"},"modified":"2022-04-12T21:31:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T01:31:46","slug":"10000-hours-of-practice-malcolm-gladwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/10000-hours-of-practice-malcolm-gladwell\/","title":{"rendered":"10,000 Hours of Practice, Explained (Malcolm Gladwell)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It may seem obvious that we need to work hard to succeed, but too often we attribute success solely to talent and forget that the hours we put in matter<\/strong> just as much as, if not significantly more than, the natural gifts we start with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need a certain level of natural talent to get your foot in the door in a particular field. But after you are \u201cgood enough,\u201d practice becomes the determining factor in how successful you are. According to Malcolm Gladwell, 10,000 hours of practice is how long it takes to become an expert<\/a> in something<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How long is 10,000 hours? It’s roughly 5 hours of full time work at 2,000 hours per year. If you do it as a hobby at 10 hours a week, it will take you 20 years to get to expert level. 10,000 hours of practice is a long time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opportunity of Time (And Timing)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s not so obvious is that having the time to have 10,000 hours of practice is a luxury.<\/strong> We tend to think of practice as an equalizer\u2014anyone who is a hard worker can succeed. But in reality, only a privileged few have the time necessary to master a skill<\/a> set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some studies show that the most masterful individuals in their fields have practiced their craft for at least 10,000 hours. Even The Beatles, who seemed to come out of nowhere, were seasoned musicians, having logged their 10,000 hours at a strip club in Hamburg, Germany.<\/strong> By 1964, they had played an estimated 1,200 times. (Few bands play as many shows in their entire careers.) Their thousands of practice hours in Germany were a key to their success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Gladwell has been criticized for focusing too much on the number of practice hours rather than their quality. As critics, and even the author of the 10,000-hour study, point out, how <\/em>you practice is even more important than how much<\/em> you practice. Gladwell has since clarified that he wasn\u2019t suggesting that 10,000 hours of practice was a magic number. His point was that you need to practice a lot<\/em> to reach mastery of a skill.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to be in pretty extraordinary circumstances (with the extraordinary opportunities they provide) to accumulate 10,000 hours of focused practice as a young person.<\/strong> These circumstances often emerge from two external factors:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10,000 Hours Requirement 1: Privilege<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Carving out 10,000 hours of practice in childhood requires the support of the adults in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helps if your family has money. You can\u2019t devote yourself to the full-time practice of a craft while also working a part-time job to pay for it. Going to school may also eat into your practice time. Wealthier families can afford to homeschool a promising child or arrange for special accommodations that allow for extended practice hours. Money buys time, and time is necessary for 10,000 hours of practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10,000 Hours Requirement 2: Luck of Timing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Just as your birthday affects your success in school or hockey, your birth year, in relation to historical events, may provide unique opportunities.<\/strong> Those opportunities may allow you 10,000 hours of practice that wouldn\u2019t otherwise be available to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, of the 75 richest people in history, fourteen are Americans born in the 1830\u2019s. This is astonishing. From Cleopatra to the present, 20% of the wealthiest individuals come from the same country and the same generation. Did something about their birth year give them an advantage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1860\u2019s and 1870\u2019s, industrialism was ramping up, railroads were being built, and Wall Street was emerging. Individuals born in the 1830\u2019s were in a prime position to take advantage of these ripe entrepreneurial opportunities. If you were born in the 1840s, you were too young to benefit from these opportunities. If you were born in the 1820s, you were too old to radically shift your mindset<\/a> to understand the new economy. If you were born in the 1830s, you were lucky: You had both the opportunity to take advantage of the transforming economy and the 10,000 hours of practice to devote to finding your place<\/a> in it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, an inordinate number of successful computer programmers were born between 1952 and 1958.<\/p>\n\n\n\n